Awesomerun

It's like a bigass diesel powered dinosaur!

Kazuki goes out missing trying to help Breznev. In the mean time Kong and Edward fish out the APC they “found” and deliver it to Bruce’s shop for repairs. The two get a call from Suwahir for some work. Suwa needs the schematics from an office on iPods in about a month.

Kong and Edward decide that with vehicles on the land. Why not vehicles on the water and head out to steal them a boat! Getting info from Venture Industries. The team finds a boat owned by Al Asam locally mored. Kong steals “Tim Harbor Master” cats for the gate key to get in to the docks at night.

Kong and Edward attack the Al Asam agents at night and stole their boat.

Kazuki reads over Breznev’s note. It’s disjointed, in several colors, in pen and pencil and marker. Scattered and fragmented, but all in the same hand. In the same mind. How to piece this together? Breznev looked for clues, symbols he thought were secret gateways to meetings arcane and profound. He left clues of his own when he needed to. “You can’t find the Tree, but you can find Keter,” Breznev would tell him.

Find Keter.

Kazuki called Sylvie, Breznev’s wife. It was long overdue, but unnecessary. Sylvie was always the strong one, “My anchor to this plane of existance,” Breznev would say about her. He arranged a plane trip to Moscow the next day, and left to pick up some Sumatran tea and teak wood carved Javanese masks. They liked the masks.

. . .

“We don’t wear masks to hide, we wear them to disguise. You say that they’re the same thing, but your saying that is Profane, as the one who can’t find what they look for because of it. No, no, I’m not making fun of you Kazuki. I’ll get to that, but let me finish. You see something hidden and something disguised, and you think ‘something kept from me’. That’s Profane. We disguise the truth to keep it from those who do not have eyes to see it. That was a contribution from Sufism that the Rosicrucians learned: this which is why they coded their ciphers on their search for the Mahatmas, couldn’t let the Secret Chiefs learn of their discoveries: Eyes to See, Ears to Hear. It’s the difference between being in a crowd and listening to a hundred conversations, and being in a crowd and being able to hear each conversation. Ears to Hear. Do you understand?”

Kazuki nods, if only to keep Breznev from going off on a tangent. This was when he was young and impatient. “Fuck that shit, I got ears. I’m fucking profane now!”

Breznev laughs, one of those great Russian laughs that drowns out everything but mirth. “Yes, you are Profane. And drunk. You understand what I mean? Secular. Someone who doesn’t See. La Très Sainte Trinosophie says it right: we enshrine our secrets in code and riddles to disguise them from the masses. They’re not kept simply to keep us in the dark: the Secret Chiefs are those enlightened enough to see The Tree, and that has no power when it becomes commonplace.”

“Guns in Avalon?” Kazuki asks.

. . .

“Exactly,” Sylvie says, when Kazuki shows up. Puts the teas in a box in the cupboards. Mikael is in the living room, Kazuki hasn’t seen him yet, doesn’t know what to do. Mikael doesn’t shake his hand. “You understand when he left, he had been in his office for weeks. He didn’t just run out half-cocked, but you know his obsessions. You might be right, looking for the Ark, I know he looked in his Bible—”

Kazuki laughed. “Truth by Committee!” they both say at once. Breznev always called it that. What good is a map that’s one-third history and two-thirds fiction?

Sylvie grinned. “Here,” she hands him Breznev’s bible. Kazuki flips through it and nothing falls out of the pages. He sees an address, London, written inside the cover, and puts it in his backpack to look through later. There’s a sigil on the back cover.

. . .

“Thamiel? That’s one of the Qliphothic paths. A bunch of hermetic falsehoods invented by Crowley and Regardie back in the days when they revived the Order of the Golden Dawn, on their quest to disguise even the masks of truth. Hadn’t latched onto the Argenteum Astrum yet, that was their Malkuth—ha, their Gamaliel! Listen, I understand their ideas: you have other forces, and they sought to calculate them, it’s why the Golden Dawn was filled with mathematicians. It’s only human. But they didn’t seek to understand them, they simply took what existed and built on that. That’s why their contribution was simply a Qliphothic Tree. If they had understood the Zohar, they’d see the inherent duality of each Sephirah. There, that’s Thamiel right there: Duality. And in setting foot on Keter, you understand that their path is simply half of the Tree. You can’t walk half of a path, it either is or it isn’t.”

Kazuki showed him the gravestone. They were on the Isle des Juifs, in Paris. After being kicked out of the Pantheon for drunkenness (that was only fair), they split several tabs of LSD and Breznev wanted to find De Molay’s grave. Notre Dame stood glaring over their shoulders. “You found it! My god, look at it. Wait, this isn’t a grave: Jacques De Molay, Thamiel Resurgentes? THIS GRAVE IS BULLSHIT!”

“You want to know why the Templars were brought to an end by King Philip, why they had tortured them into confessing that they worshipped Baphomet? The Ilkhanate’s request in the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, the ones written in Templar blood! Oh Clement saw to that, said they were defilers of the cross, betrayers of Christ and that was that for the Templars, but they certainly did not put fucking Tattva on their graves! He died here, was burned at the stake, and asked to die facing the cathedral,” He points to Notre Dame, “but they couldn’t have buried him here. Must have taken him home, buried him at Kolossi. Let’s be sure.”

Kazuki and Breznev, strung out on vodka and LSD, were chased through Paris on a clear winter night by the flashing blue and red lights of archangels, who wanted to arrest them for gravedigging.

. . .

Kazuki stepped into Breznev’s library. Strange, he’d known the man for a long time, but had never really seen the inside of his home. It was exactly as he’d expected, as crazy and disjointed as Breznev’s thoughts. Books were stacked up dozens high, and pages torn seemingly at random from them. It would be a waste, Breznev had no special regard for books. He treated them as pads of paper and tore out pages to wipe his mouth while eating. Kazuki saw a copy of the Lemegeton perched on top of one of the stacks. He remembered it from Breznev’s long mushroom trips and pulled it off the pile. Flipping through the pages, he saw a scrawled note “Barrett – 20526 Grand River Ave – Detroit”. Closing the book, Kazuki slips it into his backpack. Airplane reading.

He looked in the Rolodex, Sylvie had gotten it for him years ago as a joke. Breznev was KGB, he would never write a number down in that and they both knew it. Kazuki flipped through it anyway, because he wasn’t looking for an answer. He was looking for signs. The Rolodex skips “G” entirely.

Kazuki looked at the books near Breznev’s desk, lifts up a heavily marked up copy of La Très Sainte Trinosophie, Breznev had obviously been spending time trying to decipher it. He sees a note written in the margins of several pages of Soldier of Fortune (obviously Sylvie didn’t know what Breznev was doing with her magazines, or he would have been disappeared long ago). It was a… poem? No, a liturgy.

“Six are their number, the lords high and mighty, rulers and devourers of men. On waves of war, plagues and pestilence shall they feast, growing stronger and darker. These are the names of the Enlightened, speak not of them except with reverance and rarity:”

Baphomet, the axe of plagues

Dagon, the sword of war

Abraxas, the scythe of famine

Azazel, the chains of winter

Moloch, the rope of poverty

Belial, the spear of kings

“And on the tongues of man, secrets…” [the next several lines of the note have been torn out]

“Few people laughed. Few people cried. Most were silent.”

_This ends the rite of initiation

Kazuki read through it, and saw the photo paperclipped to the page. It was his.

. . .

Kazuki was on Cyprus, doing some wetwork for one of the Mafia dons. It was a clean job, the spooky kind of clean, where everything goes so well you try to remember what you fucked up and it drives you crazy that you can’t think of anything. It was summer, and the Mediterranean breeze was warm and inviting. He wanted to find a bar and enjoy the night when he rounded one of the roads, and saw around the hill the lighted figure of Kolossi.

Half a bottle of Italian red wine into the night, he set out. Breznev was in a foul mood, broken leg and burns all up his back from a misfired incendiary grenade in Riyadh. He’d be out for months.

The castle was now a hotel, necessities of antiquity turned commercial. It’s a damn good thing Breznev wasn’t here. ‘Hey they have a bar,’ thought Kazuki. He swapped his half bottle for a new one, or maybe finished it and then got a new one. That must have been it, because when he woke up, there were two bottles at the grave.

Kazuki didn’t go to the graveyard, he was Walking The Tree. Laughed at the thought, and hoped he wasn’t going crazy like Breznev. Saw a sign, or maybe it was a shadow, and it was as good a night as any to be chasing shadows. He chased her along the walls, and underneath, through the wine cellars (how did they get in?) and out back. Dancing in and through the shadows under the nascent moon, along the thin retaining wall, arms stretched out for balance that wine had evicted earlier. A leafless branch scraped along the stone walls, her hollow rattling laughter echoing across the hillside, and he stepped into the shadow. The embrace was cold.

He woke with ‘Nahemah’ and a local phone number written on his hand in flowing script he didn’t recognize. The number was dead.

. . .

He recognized the photograph, but had forgotten about it. He’d taken it the next morning, when the sun was cresting the hillsides and casting long fingers of shadow through the olive trees. Their thin leaves covered in morning dew shone a thousand tiny suns, refractions of those ancient gods worshipped by cities long dead. A thousand baleful eyes, Adrammelech summoned from his throne and staring down from every leaf and branch. A wave of light, sun god or no, slowed down and bounding recklessly through the air. Witnessed angles of incidence and refraction curves making complex patterns of light, just so, as the intricate web of pure white light fades at the edges into thin pale rainbows and snaps true in a perfect summoning sigil against the marble sculpture.

It was the grave, hidden in a thicket. He’d woken next to it not hungover despite the two bottles of wine the night previous, and knew he would never find the path again. The picture he’d taken of the grave, the decrepit moss covered effigy, face inscribed with:

Prelude – Ended last time with the team talking to Zed about a ‘backstab’ offer. After hearing the offer Zed had to offered Kong, Kazi, and Edward were left to decide to take the offer or not.
The team (Kazi, Kong, Edward, Muhamad, and Rossie) started to head back to Raja’s place to conferece in the warrrom, when Raja urgently called with an emergency. He exclaimed that one of the council members was currently pined down in a safehouse somewhere in south jakatra, and immediately needed assistance and aid with extraction. The team deverted to the address that was underseige.

The street was filled with gun fire as the team approached with the van. A 2 strory building on the right hand side was being seiged from all directions. The team approached with high speed shooting through the windows and chucking explosives at one of the raiders buildings. Kazi jumped out to make his way into the building being sieged, in the process getting hit by a well trained sniper. At this point the rest of the team members left the van towards the sieged building, leaving Edward to steer the van around. A series of gun fire, and napalhm explosions later, the team reached the council member. Quickly patched up a attempted to leave the area. While evacuating the council member took a shoot to the vest, and one of the van’s tire got shoot out. Realizing that Zed and his team were getting to close, the team evacuated back to the war-room to make their next plan

At the war-room the team talked to several KGB agents and discovered a series of polics uniforms were stolen and most likely being used by someone with connections to the shinning path. Trying to find a lead, Edward cross referenced the list of missing uniforms with Yolanna’s file and found a hit. The team uncovered the address of their lead suspect, broke up into groups, and began investigating. Other team members investigated the other addresses, while Kong, Edward, and Kazi investigated their lead.

The team pulled up to a hotel style apartment building. After startling one of the residents, and tripping a rigged grenade. The team broke into an unoccupied apartement and started searching for clues. They came across more police uniforms, some cash, and a letter marked “Get it done or don’t come home” They were startled by a bright light out in the lot, which ended up being their own van lit up in flames. They spotted a few men dressed in local police uniforms with guns drawn on the apartment. A short combat took place and ended abruptly as Kong was captured and his life threatened. Not risking the life of one of their own, Edward and Kazi, allowed the men to escape with ‘Deagle” and Kong in hand.

The Briefing

Sunday evening, 8:00pm:
Raja calls each of you to tell you that you’re reporting to
Rahim Balowski at an office building in Central Kota tomorrow at 6:00 am.

When you reach the office building, you see the sidewalk blocked off
with construction signs. There are several obviously undercover
“construction workers” hanging out at each end, and another spotter
across the street. You see two men on the roofs of nearby buildings.
You’re stopped at one of the barricades, and get a very handsy welcome
from one of the guards before Rahim steps out says hello, gives you
all badges, and brings you inside.

Inside the building is a lot of people, “A war room,” Rahim explains,
“Sokarno’s legislation is going through the Council Tuesday at 3:00pm,
and various outside groups have stepped up their threats. His
opponents are working overtime to get this shot down. We expect it to
be a close one, probably passing by 2 votes or less.”

He leads you past a bank of gigantic monitors with a couple operators
at each. The room itself is barely furnished, but the equipment that
is there looks like it would be top of the line at any Jack Bauer
Power Hour fantasy. “We’ve requested help from affiliate agencies, and
the embassies lent us some equipment and personnel. In addition, we’ve
brought in several contractors, yourselves included to assist. I’m
afraid the pool of ISI agents I know can be trusted is large enough
for protection details on the council memebers only. Here we are.” He
stops by two men in their mid 40’s, wearing jeans and cowboy hats.
“Meet Agent Laverne Likens and Agent Wilbur Corwin, with the KGB”. The
two are sitting in front of a rack of networking gear and several
dozen camera feeds with labels written on torn bits of masking tape,
wearing headphones. They turn, and one says “Mikhail says hello,” and
go back to the monitors.

There are several offices closed off, “For the contractors,” Rahim
explains, “We don’t want them getting sticky fingers with the
agencies’ equipment.” He knocks on one of the doors, and opens it.
Inside are two women and a man, completely baked by the rolling clouds
of smoke coming from the room, and watching some old black-and-white
cartoon in a language you’ve never heard. “Meet Bliss Williams,
Alice Gracie, and Mitchell Volk, contractors from England.”

“That’s Waddles Volk!” one of the women says, and the two women burst
out laughing. Rahim rolls his eyes and closes the door.

The next door he knocks on is answered by a huge man with a
sledgehammer in his hand. “Roaches” he says, pointing at the sledge.
Rahim looks at you, “From Chicago, this is Rocco. Greaser’s in the
back, doing something very illegal but very helpful. Got those emails
yet?” He asks.

“Fuck off Blowey, I’m working on it. Takes time to do it, unless you
want me to alert everyone this side of the equator that HEY WE’RE
HACKING SHINING PATH MEMBERS EMAILS” she yells, making sure everyone
can hear her. “I’ll tell you when I get them. Maybe a day, a day and a
half?”

Rahim brings you to the next door. “I don’t know where Dingo is, we
had some vagabonds sleeping in these offices, which were supposed to
be secure. I think he went to interrogate th—” he gets cut off when
he opens the door and there several kegs on the floor. Familiar enough
by now, Cassidyand Sundanceare there, having a keg-chugging contest.
Judging from the vomit on the floor, this probably isn’t the first
time they’ve done this this morning. A man who looks like Dingo
McBride is trying to keep up, and doing a pretty decent job of it, at
least for someone who doesn’t do this for a living. “Meet Agent
Dingo McBride, of the ASIO. I think you met his partner, Dingo McBride, a
couple weeks ago.”

“Well howdy mates! Dingo was a man among men, a mountain among…uh,”
You talk a bit about how Dingo died, and Dingo looks relieved that is
wasn’t from rabid Koalas, which you gather is what Australian parents
tell their children to scare them. Rahim closes the door just as you
hear Dingo vomiting. “They seem to be resisting our interrogation
efforts. We’ll call them contractor team #3 for now.”

He leads you back to the war room, where Laverne fills you in on some
of the details. “The World Bank is here, and they’ve agreed to open a
$1.2 billion loan for infrastructure improvements if this goes
through, to help Indonesia’s trade balance within the SE Asia economic
bloc. Now with that much money at stake, the money men are going to be
pulling out all the stops. You’ve seen this already, from what Rahim’s
told us. This bill is going to be disastrous for Russell & Ming, who
are heavily invested in MAHI, and stand to lose a lot of money from
improved relations between Malaysia and Indonesia. They’ve threatened
to close down their Jakarta branch if it goes through, and their
President Xiang Ming is here to help the opposition whip up “no”
votes. The main sponsors of this bill are Councilmembers
Sokarno Lohmein, Tillie Mulkey, Hiram Longoria, and Aisha Nichols. They
control the largest blocks of votes in the council, so they’ve been
the biggest targets, and the ones the ISI put their security details
on.”

Rahim interrupts, “We put a four person detachment as bodyguards with
a separate two-person surveillance team on each of these.”

“They’re insufferable! Followed an old man into the bathroom!”
Sokarno’s just walked in, flanked by four men in suits, SMGs, and
earpieces. Very badass looking, in a Reservoir Dogs kind of way.
“Rahim, I talked to Janice at the embassy, and the CIA agreed to let
us borrow a couple agents, but they didn’t tell me anymore. I think
they’re monitoring them themselves.” He turns to you, “Nice to see you
alive and well. Raja said you’d be on hand, and I’m afraid we’ll
probably be needing you, shorthanded with loyal agents ourselves.”

Sokarno continues, “The main opposition I’m working with are: Aldo
Llanas, Amanda Bernard, Angel Tedeschi, Roberto Domino, Jorge Suter,
and Allan Ruckman. I know for a fact that Aldo and Amanda are
basically wholly owned subsidiaries of Barings IG, and Tedeschi is
bought and paid for by Russell & Ming. I’m not sure what game the
others are playing, but they’re all dangerous. They’re throwing
everything they have at us to keep this from happening. A lot of
people have a stake in this, and not just the Shining Path. Be careful
out there.”

Rahim steps up, “Corwin and Likens have an informant who told us that
they overheard a conversation about a meeting today at noon at
Corwin’s house. We think that’s probably a good place to start to weed
out the Shining Path before they succeed in bringing this whole thing
down.”

Who watching Who?

Likens gives you the address to a house in a fairly wealthy part of
the West Kota. But before they head off Kazuki talks to the KGB & CIA agents are willing to parts with some of their gear. After buying some new spy toy like shotgun microphone, tracking Bugs and a Snake Cam.
As the team leaves to the house the KGB agent Corwin ask if he can tag along, the team accepts and he start decking Edward van with some computers in the back.
After arriving to house the team spreads out and scouts out the area. Kazuki finds high end apartments overlooking the house with a telescope. Kazuki gives Edward a shotgun mic to listen in on the room while Kazuki broke in the back of the complex and after confirming that it was indeed the “Bay Watch Theme” playing the confirm that they sentries of some sort and Edward join Kazuki and left Agent Corwin in the van to watch the house and the window in any case things go wrong. Kazuki wanted to bust in like a bad ass but to his avail, Edward common sense kick in and told them that there probably allies and it was the CIA agents that were out there doing shit on their own. The CIA Agents Mohammed Jarowski and Rosemary Marquis gave a shakedown of the building and the people showing up the team decide to wait for the meeting to start before starting a plan of attack that might screw up chance to listen on their plan to only find that they had a white noise generator, no cover to sneak up to the house and a lot of gang goons in non-fitting suits as added security for the meeting. Kazuki and Edward stood dumb founded at the Professionalism of the runner bought in Zedto be surprised again to hear from Agent Corwin that strike team of five (?) and one of them was strap Was heading in to the building and as Kazuki tells the CIA agents that what was happening they close up shop in a blink of an eye and start heading out and oh what a big surprise to find combat was all over with a 1 full auto of a shotgun and return kick with a grenade. Edward, Mohammed and Rosemary lovingly stroking her shotgun opted to take the elevator smeared with the blood and small chunks of what used to be people while Kazuki opted to loot the dead foes just slain to find so a wallet and 2 cell phone in working condition. On the way leaving the area the Team gets a call from War Room about a car bombing that hit Tillie Mulkey and is now in critical condition in the hospital with added security to protect her.

Fireworks

With the cell phone as the source of information the team heads out find to the next location to find out its gangs turf and its looks like the “Fourth Sons” with that the team sends out Kong to use great personally to get any information that we could use to turn the tides of things to only get kick out of bar in minutes with the information he wanted that practically if not all of the Fourth Sons are there. Edward and Kazuki come up with the idea to save some bullets and blow them always with some explosives. After Edward calls one of his friend to find out where he can get some commercial explosives he heads over blood soak clothing and said “I’m the building inspector” (or something along those lines) the demolition foreman didn’t buy it at all and set up a deal for a long lunch break for $2000 to only have Edwards have his second try as a shifty con artist and said”I only have $1500 on me….” Then the foreman moan then looks to Kazuki who paid the other $500. The Team headed back to the bar with the Fourth Sons and starts MacGyvering the car to the explosive to drive into the bar. With Edward success in not killing himself blowing up the bar they leave the fireworks show as quick as they can when Dingo call the team with a surprise when Edward answer the phone and spaz out over phone on his +40 kill bombing run earlier as Kazuki rips the phone from Edward cause he can’t make coherent sentences. After getting Dingo SEAL of Approval he ask the team for alittle help, with litte work traced their funding to Industrial Luxuries, a Russell & Ming shell company. Only to find right after they get a call on one of the burners!? It was Zed and wanted to talk like Professional. With the rush hour in effect the team couldn’t set up before hand like he plan and came to the team with a deal of taking out the Councilmembers in exchange for half of his fee. After the talk Rosemary offered the team some Long Haul.

MISSION VII BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA TOWN (PLAGIARISM FTW!)
Our Terrific Trio turns in to the Dynamic Duo as Edward had to attend to his day job. But never fear. This titan of a tag team shall endure! Kazuke and Kong decide to start the day with a bit of fun and enter in to a fight club tournament held by the Lotus Eaters. Easily surpassing all to the top of the list after the discovery of MOTHER FUCKING COWBOY BITCHES!

The two square off as the last two fighters. With vile pleasantries and epic arguments. A winner is picked for them due to boredom by the host. With winnings and drugs in hand. Kong talks to a lieutenant of the Lotus Eaters Keri and discovers a bit of unrest among the quaint common folk. With cash and cowboys, the main c’s for currency. They get a look inside the gangs world and possibly some inside help.

Later Kong gets his motorcycle outfitted with a sweet sound system for battle music.

Late in the night, and as stealthy as a three legged elephant fucking a giant squeaky toy. Kazuke and Kong descend upon Tommie Trainer’s humble abode and ring the door bell! DING DONG A dreary and sleepy half naked Tommie opens the door wearily to find out that his wife has been cheating on him! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUN With a bit of info. A deal is struck and the Duo will take on the evil villainy of one book keeping Benton. This master of demise, robbing poor honest folk of their money by allowing them to make sports bets. For the elimination of this.

Tommie shall get the group the info they need on Barrings Investments for Raja. After some much needed and deserved rest. The group goes out in to the world with music a blazing, (Outlawz, Outlawz, Outlawz riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide. To the west. A gun by his side. Hell and glory. Iron and pride. A gun will decide where the outlawz ride.) to The Sports bar. Cause that is where their guns told them to ride. Their guns spirits being Bruce Willis and Baron Harkonnen. Plagiarism like a mother fucker!

Their they drink a lot. Cause beer is awesome. Everyone should enjoy the greatness is beer. Weather you enjoy a nice light hops, a dark amber, or maybe a smooth wheat. Beer is a very delicious drink that should be enjoyed by all. With that. Todays adventure is brought to you by Boone’s Farm. Boone’s Farm. It’ll never fuck you up. Back to the episode. Our Dynamic duo follow Benton and his goons to a underground gaming house set up in the niches of one local 24/7 laundry mat. With gun in hand, cowboy in veins, and Boone’s Farm on breath.

They breach the evil doers hideout and prove why suprise and cover are very important game mechanics for the combat system. Kong nearly makes it with his life as we learn why a rifle at range is better then a shotgun. A quick trip to Doctor Mo’s and our hero might live to fight another day. Tune in next time to see who’se pants will go brown! Same Awesome time. Same Awesome channel.

Kazuki steps off the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport, and hesitates a bit at the slap in the face from France’s piss-and-vinegar air, warning him that he isn’t going to like it in France, and the feeling’s mutual. He rents a little 125cc motorbike to avoid the traffic he knows is going to be shit, and follows the signs covered in French gibberish with the word “Toulouse” thrown in somewhere. Through hills and countryside with apathetic sheep herds, spread out on the green hillsides like wooly melanoma. It’s a sick storybook setting, as if the author of countless childrens books was burning in hell when he wrote it and wanted to tell kids how much worse it could be—hey, they could be in France, under that angry piss-and-vinegar sky.

It wasn’t like this last time he was in France with Breznev—no countryside, no sheep, not even these overbearing gray clouds, no it was a bright sunny winter day in oldtown Paris. That one was easy, a quick Spanish Two-Step on a sweet elderly couple that just happened to be Nazis in The War. Not much longer for those kind, especially with people like Kazuki and Breznev playing trashman wherever the money’s good. It’s rare in the business when you can go to sleep feeling good about yourself after a job, so you take it as rare relief when you get it.

The road continues at a slight angle through the mountains, not over them, and not quite at their shoulder—no it’s halfway up. A lot more work to make it and maintain, but it lasts longer, is what Breznev said. Said it kept it off the ley lines.

. . .

Kazuki laughed, down several shots of vodka and in no way keeping up with Breznev, either in drink or in pseudo mystic bullshit that Breznev was so fond of. Orthodox, as all good Russians should be, but Gnostic by way of his mother, a Jew who fled to Russia during the War. He had an unusual take on them both, heavily ritualized and contradictory, and wrapped them both up in his own convoluted brand of Kabbalah. His mother would have been pissed.

“No, no, I’m serious kid. The Romans built their roads over the Woad and Helvetic footpaths. Those were built along ley lines; not on them, but they followed them. It all goes back to the Romans—you’re laughing, but what do you know? Look at Paris. Look at it. You know what Paris was before it was Paris? It was a Roman camp. Just a temporary place for them to stay the night, and they built this whole despicable and grand city on it. To them, it was nothing; they didn’t even think of it as a place for a city, to them it was all impermanent. The roads? They built those to stand for centuries. They built those to outlast the empire. They wanted their works to outlast humanity itself. Shelley saw Babylonian arrogance from the Romans, it’s why he wrote Ozymandias; that was about Nebuchadnezzar, when he defeated the Israelites and took the Ark to Babylon: ‘boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.’ Babylon, a city that was built in defiance of the Sefirot.”

. . .

What would Breznev do? They’d been friends for a while, hell, Breznev taught him how to live on this side of the law. Okay, what would Breznev do? Hotel. He’d get a hotel. Kazuki pulls the bike into Rennes Les Chateau, a small tourist spot on the map, and lets the road take him to the city.

. . .

“Listen kid, I’ll let you in on life’s secret, and that’s singular because there’s really only this one. Well, these ten: the Tree of Sefirot, the Seed of Sophia. Ten Kines of the World—I know that means “Cows of the World”, you need to think of it like a metaphor. Well, not like a metaphor, it is, hey stop laughing and pass the bottle. Fine, fine, call them Enumerations instead of Kines. You have this Tree, it’s what the Israelites discovered when Moses came down from Sinai with the ten commandments, they weren’t a big list like you see Charlton Heston carrying along with his big swinging dick, that was Puritan oversimplification. They were a system: a map, a door, and the key all in one. I won’t go into the details here because you don’t look like you’re even listening, but they build cities on this…” He trails off, staring at the geometry drawn in the sand by the swinging of the Pendulum. He gets that way when he’s sober and doesn’t give a damn if the people around him aren’t laughing at his wisecracks.

. . .

Kazuki knew Breznev better than to try to find out where he was at the moment. Breznev was too good at covering his tracks and eluding pursuers if he thought his life was in danger. No, he’d have to find out from the beginning and walk in Breznev’s shadow. Drink where Breznev drank, walk where Breznev walked. To pinpoint a man who doesn’t want to be found and knows how not to be is a virtually impossible task. To track a man with direction, you need only understand them to follow them. Doing otherwise would be trying to skip to the end, and then you’d miss their path entirely and never arrive at your destination.

. . .

Kazuki stands next to Breznev, looking at the Pendulum in the chamber of the Pantheon. Breznev is speaking of cities: “Malkuth, the seed, the vessel, that’s the final of the ten Sephirah. Each city has a center: the vessel, where the city’s womb lies. Follow the tree, and it takes you to these roots, to Malkuth. But you can’t find it by looking. Oh no, if you did that, you’d be skipping ahead to the end and that means you never found the Tree to begin with. The map exists for a reason: it’s not a destination, it’s a code. To find Malkuth, you need to follow the Tree, starting with the first Sephirah, Keter: The Crown. To understand the Crown, you need to understand that it is beyond any human’s ability to comprehend it. That’s why the Byzantine Emperors made the Hagia Sophia the way they did: made it a Tree you could walk under, and thought their sages, mathemeticians, and wizards could find the Seed if they could walk the Tree. Foolish, but Sophia was Malkuth for so many conquering nations, the headquarters of Gnosticism, Orthodoxy, Islamic sorcery, and even the Templars used it as a map. Sophia contains secrets if you know to look: Sophia is Malkuth for some, Keter for others, but can never be the Tree itself.”

. . .

A quick look at the local city center displays pamphlets for tourists. Nice hotels, upscale. Breznev would never go for the attention that brings. Dumpy hostel? No, that comes with the wrong kind of attention. Breznev would take something middle. Something mundane. Kazuki sets off on foot, turning left at the next intersection.

. . .

“Left. That’s how they build cities. You go right, and the city spits you back out. Thinks you prove you don’t belong in it, that you don’t want its secrets. You go left, and the city opens itself to you, draws you in. That’s the Tree. You’re laughing again. Listen Kazuki, look at any of these old cities. No, not an old city, that’s too obvious, those were built before we discovered the Tree, and etched runes into the Earth with our highways, emulating the Romans once again. Look at what they did to Detroit. They built the elder sign of Marduk right into the fucking highway system! They didn’t care about secrecy, just look at a map and its staring at you like the goddamn Eye of Horus! They didn’t give a fuck about the ley lines, the power was there and they wanted it. Thought it would last forever. It was what? 50 years until they burned the ley line right out, and all that power, gone. Look at the city now. Marduk is on his throne, laughing at what a great deal he just pulled. I blame Crowley, he was out in America fucking things up since the 20’s with his brand of shallow mystical bullshit-there’s a man who never understood Keter. Like a kid with a gun, and now look at it.”

. . .

Several lefts later, Kazuki stops a bit on a bench to think. Breznev liked to have a suite, didn’t want to be caught without a place to cook up some nerve gas or improvised explosives if it was called for. That ruled off all but three of the hotels. Easy to do the long way, Kazuki thinks, and leaves for the first one. He takes three lefts around the block instead of a single right, and goes inside. Nothing—Breznev would have left a clue, one only Kazuki would know. Not in the open, but they knew where each other would look. One down. It was getting cold, and Kazuki walks down the street with his hands in his pockets. This place does have a certain attraction, its slightly curved roads just the way Breznev would have liked. He was afraid of straight roads and grid-shaped cities, said it was that way to wall off places of power. They only made cities that way if they were prisons for gods and devils.

Stepping into the warm front office of the second hotel, Kazuki waits a little for the man at the front desk to turn off some old black and white sitcom and talk to him. He glances at the sign in register, and sees a name crossed out, already checked out.

-C. Picks – 3/10/10 room 9-

FUCK!

Well he’s obviously not here anymore. Maybe he ran into trouble? “My friend left something in his room, he was staying in room 9, and he asked me to pick it up for him. Did you happen to see anything leftover when he left?”

The old man pulls out a basket marked what you assume as “lost and found”, but might have said “look at this dumbass american” for all you know. He hands you a small note and several ticket stubs from various airlines.

We join our intrepid Indonesians inspecting internecine interlopers. Their boss and mentor, Raja, pulls them off a get-rich-quick-scheme (by stealing other people’s credit card info and bring the foul deeds of Barings Investment Group to a standstill), and introduces them to his old rebel friend (now Indonesian Councilman) Sukarno and an intelligence director at ISI, Rahim. Rahim suspects a hit was placed on Sukarno by the Shining Path, and Sukarno asks Raja for help in neutralizing the threat. Time is of the essence, because Sukarno’s sponsoring legislation in the Council to formally open trade agreements with Malaysia. The Shining Path is a Malaysian isolationist cult/militia, and vows to stop this any way they can. They some crazy bitches but they got them some bigass guns.

Now on to the story…

MISSION VI THE BIG SHOW!
With the evil Shining Path now making its move in Indonesia. The Terrific Trio sets out to right the wrong and punch the wrong doers. Our heroes set out to meet Australian special agent Dingo with info on the Shining Path. But oh no’s! The group is set upon during their meeting. Assassins from the Shining Path enter the scene to reek havoc upon Dingo’s head. Thankfully our heroes survive the ordeal even though not one of them kicked over one table. Such true justice that our heroes even think about the trouble to the owner of the cafe while fighting evil. Taking one assassin alive for questioning and going through intel they have received.

GM Note

Tom leaves out the single most important event of the entire game:

The group gets in touch with Mikhail Komstok, Dingo’s KGB contact, who directs intel to the Russian embassy. The group meets Yelena Boshkan, the Russian ambassador, who provides them with the file in exchange for an undetermined favor in the future.

The Terrific Trio set out in the night to the hideout of the rest of the Shining Path assassins. Quietly the heroes sneak upon the hideout and place onto thy unholy ass an ass whoopin’ of insurmountable measure with their holy beanbag shotgun of righteousness and good times. The assassins are laid to rest. (ITS A GODDAMN PUN FOR SHOOTING THEM IN BED) The heroes take off with one more villain for questioning. Will our heroes ever be able to cut all the heads off of the Shining Path Hydra? Will Tsing Tsing ever find “the source”? Will Edward buy a bike so the whole party can ride out west in to the sun set like badasses? Find out next week. Same Awesome time. Same Awesome channel.

March 12, 2010. Kong Kai Kyo heads out to the docks in North Jakarta to pick up another Chinese national from Hong Kong named Samo Hung. Samo Hung, an over talkative guy. (would add more but Mike is always late on producing a character) Back at Raja’s place. Raja is in need of a few favors. Also wants to test out the new guy and see how he works.

MISSION 1 ENTER THE DYNAMIC DUO!

Some local ruffians have stolen some very valuable jewelry from a good friend of Raja’s. It is up to the Dynamic Duo to put an end to the disrespect from the Lotus Eaters gang. Early in the afternoon Kong and Samo head out to Manwell’s apartment after getting info that it was his crew that stole the jewelry. Kong sets up a fake drug buy to get in closer with Manwell. A few hours later with all of Manwell’s crew at the apartment. The Dynamic Duo return to the action and get the drop on the thiefs! Some heads were removed and discarded. Some people died. Some things got bloody. Nothing much of importance then that. The Dynamic Duo were victorious and returned the jewels!

MISSION II PASSPORTS AT THE PORT!

The Dynamic Duo recently victorious a few minutes ago head out to North Jakarta to retrieve a shipment of missing passport supplies for Raja. “King” Kong and his talkative side kick Samo make a grand entrance on to the docks and enforce their radical will upon all in their way. All in their way being a fuck up named Hazlewood. Once retrieving the info they needed. The Dynamic Duo find the supplies and being the great sleuths they are. Pay a foreman $500 to open the container they need so they can retrieve the box. The passport supplies are returned and once again the Dynamic Duo is victorious.

MISSION III DISRESPECTING THE DON!

After showing their skills in quick retrieval and finesse. Raja has one last favor to ask of for the day. A client of Raja’s “business” has been skipping out on payments. Such a slight to the man’s honor can not be tolerated! The Dynamic Duo once again set out to the country side to right the wrongs. There was a house, several grenades thrown, shit blown up, people blown away, and a poor little girl scared. The Dynamic Duo as always victorious return to Raja after laying waste to the waste in the country side.

MISSION IV ENTER THE OTHER GUY AND LOW ADVENTURE ON THE SMALL SEAS!

A new piece to the team is added as Raja brings in Kazuke to work with the Dynamic Duo. This mysterious foreigner brings much mystery and turns the Dynamic Duo in to the TERRIFIC TRIO! This episode our heroes will get wet, hot, and bothered. There is a boat on the water at a dock on an island that Raja doesn’t want there anymore. Some scuba gear, C4, and an awkward trip. The boat was no more.

MISSION V A PAIN IN THE LOTUS EATERS ASS!

The Terrific Trio meets up with Suwahir Wahkri. A leader in the BRUCE LEE SUPER AWESOME HAPPY PUNCHERS gang. He needs their help sending a message to the Lotus Eaters, that their skullduggery will not be tolerated on the streets any more. After staking out a street and waiting for the Lotus Eaters to appear. They set up on the street and set upon the rival gang with valiant 2×4s of justice and gel rounds vengence. Together they bring down the might of nonlethal combat against the Lotus Eaters.

MISSION VI THE BIG SHOW!

“Next time on Awesomerun. Now with the group in place and all the pieces placed on the board. A new stage will be set for the Terrific Trio. We’ll they overcome the trials and tribulations? Or will they do a lot of drugs and run amok? Tune in Wednesday. Same Awesome time. Same Awesome Channel.”

After Dax Chevalier’s untimely death (he will be missed) at the hands of the wiseguys in Chicago, the group is fed up with politics, with Turkmenistan and their oil feilds, and Sebastian Cole Global Investments. Sure Sebastian Cole is full of dicks who need to get keelhauled, but that’s gonna have to wait, as everyone else packs their bags, dumps their gear, and goes underground in Indonesia while things cool down in Chicago.